Brand new Penguspy makes it easier to find great Linux games

by enosis

I am excited to present the brand new version of Penguspy, a complete UI overhaul with significant technological improvements!

The previous version of Penguspy was running on WordPress using the Thematic+Gallery themes. Version 2 still uses WordPress, but the theme is completely custom built in pure HTML 5 and CSS 3 awesomeness (more cool bits are implemented as browsers add support for them) and some JQuery magic that provide a much better User Experience while going through Penguspy’s database of the best Linux games.

The UI/interaction changes from the previous version are too many to mention, but I would like to highlight some new functionality:

New instant search box – results appear as you type.

New change view and filter buttons. You can select between a thumbnail and a list view of the games (change is instant), and you can choose to view free and/or commercial games.

You can sort games by

Recently added (default)

A to Z

Highest rated

Most viewed

PenguChoice filter only displays games that are hand-picked by Penguspy.

In order to make sense of all the filters and selections you’ve made, this line describes the current view and is automatically updated every time you make a change.

The system informs you that some games are hidden from the current view, due to the active filters. You can click ‘show’ to remove those filters.

Instant access to all the available game categories.

You can submit games to Penguspy’s database (they are reviewed before insertion).

The share link open a small drop-down window that lets you share Penguspy with your social circle in a variety of ways. Please share!

If there is anything that looks like a bug, incorrect/outdated content, UI issue or anything that shouldn’t be happening in Penguspy, then you can quickly report it here.

There are more new and cool bits to discover while you explore the website.

Overall the aim of V2 is to make the process of finding a game as easy and quick as possible, and facilitate some of the latest open web technologies. One more thing I want to mention is that the YouTube videos that are embedded in the game pages will use the HTML5 video canvas tag instead of the Flash plugin, when a) there is an html5 version of the video available on YouTube and b) you have opted-in for html5 videos in YouTube.

As with every new piece of software some bugs might be found, thus the ‘beta’ tag on the logo. Please report any bug you come across using [10].

Some of my goals for future development are:

Let users filter games by year (e.g. show free games released in 2010 sorted by rating)

Provide a Top 10 list

Add multiple videos per game

Add screenshots

Provide links to other Linux gaming sites

Add more native HTML5/CSS3 functionality

Don’t forget that Penguspy needs your help and contributions in order to keep improving, and there are many ways to do so:

Rate, rate & rate! It is very important to rate games you are familiar with. By doing this, you help Penguspy build a more reliable and concise database of games that other people can browse through. (I plan to build a mini-app in Penguspy that will let you go through the games with the least amount of ratings and …rate them).

Spread the word! If you really like a game, then share it with your friends! The quickest way is by clicking the Facebook ‘like’ button, which is available in every game page.

Very well made page and a cool project! It’s nice to see good Linux-games being promoted in such a user-friendly and practical way. I’ll help out submitting and rating games when I get some time over for it.
I have a few suggestions. You might already know about them, but here goes :

* I agree a Free/Gratis/Commercial option would be nice.

* How about an option to view screenshots instead of a video once on the game page? I don’t have flash installed so all I see is a big empty box. HTML5 video would work well enough, but I would prefer a few simple screenshots screenshots. Perhaps with some easy way to switch between them which does not cover the entire screen. :) (Some browser-based image viewers seem to do that…)

* The game list is strangely slow in my browser. Scrolling stutters and it is generally displayed slowly. My computer is fast enough to play most of the latest games, so I doubt it’s a hardware problem. I use Midori (http://midori-browser.org/). No idea why this is, but it might have to do with the page.

Anyway, good luck with the project! I’m looking forward to any updates/improvements and new fun games to play. :)